City Commission - Regular Meeting

The Dayton City Commission meeting will now come to order. Would you all please rise for the invocation. Remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. This morning, the invocation will be given by Commissioner Beckham.

Thank you, Mayor. Just before we begin, I'd like to take a brief moment of silence for the city employee that we lost recently, Mr. Craig Howard. Thank you. Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to lead our city. We ask that you allow us to do it with direction, clarity, and wisdom. In your name we pray. Amen.

miss mcclendon may we please have a roll call this morning mayor turner's loss aye commissioner joseph aye shaw aye fairchild aye beckham aye may i have a motion to approve the minutes of the september the second 2026 meeting so move john second the motion your honor all in favor all in favor say aye all of us say no any abstentions It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the June 26, 2026 meeting.

I move to approve the minutes of the executive session from June 29, 2026. Second motion.

It has been properly moved and seconded to approve The minutes of the June 29th, 2026 executive session. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Any abstentions? Ms. McClendon, are there any communications or petitions this morning? There are none, Your Honor. This morning we have a presentation, age-friendly action plan. Ms. Dixteen, please proceed.

Thank you. Commissioners, are there any questions? Commissioner Beckham, any questions or comments this morning?

I have no questions, Your Honor. I just want to thank you for your leadership and work on this. I'm excited to see this influence our planning and processes. So thank you for bringing it forward.

Yeah, similar comments. Thank you for the work you've done, especially also the citizens who are engaging to help me make this work. So thank you. Thank you.

Whenever we talk about age-friendly initiatives, I'm reminded of my friend Bob Steinbach's quote that we're all temporarily able. These improvements are going to benefit the folks who are out there in neighborhoods that need it now. It's also going to affect all of us in the future. We're all going to need that eventually. So excellent work. Thank you.

Thanks. Thank you. I just wanted to echo my colleague's comments. Could you speak to how this feeds into the 2040 plan? Yeah, like the comprehensive plan?

Where will it be housed in terms of the public to review?

Thank you. I appreciate it. Ms. McClendon, are there any additions, deletions, comments to the calendar this morning? There are none, Your Honor. Ms. Dickstein, are there any additions, deletions, and comments to the calendar this morning?

Thank you. Ms. McClendon, are there any citizens that are registered to speak this morning on calendar items?

Thank you, Ms. McClendon. Commissioners, are there any comments to the city manager's recommendations this morning? Commissioner Beckham?

Yes, Your Honor. Just one. I just want to recognize the service agreement on our calendar with Sinclair to provide a student in the prosecutor's office for victim assistance. Sinclair has over 300 plus career pathways. This is another one. So I'm just thankful for their continued investment in our careers as well as just the economic opportunity that they're providing in our prosecutor's office. So those are all my comments.

Commissioner Joseph? Nothing here. Just a couple of comments. Thank you for the recommendations this morning. In terms of the questions that Ms. Hastings posed in reference to the Belmont pool, It is noted that there were some structural concerns in terms of the corrosion, but the questions that were posed, I think there were some valid questions there. Ms. Dickstein, do we have any additional background that we could provide to that, again, as they start doing a deeper dive and really started to start the work? From my understanding, they observed that there were, they discovered whether ther

What's the life expectancy of that foundation work? Do we have an ideal of...

Okay. I figured as much. Thank you very much. And then, Mr. Stark, you raised a question in regards to the $1 million. To answer your question, it was a matter of compromising with my colleagues, making sure that, again, that we don't see any decrease in any support in other funding streams that we have that are designated to our neighborhoods. So it was a matter of us having a conversation, working together to make sure that we are not... essentially taking from other projects that we are still able to continue to work on other projects for our neighborhood development as well as complementin

I move that we adopt the city manager's recommendations. And I second the motion.

It's been properly moved and seconded to approve the city manager's recommendations. All in favor say aye. All opposed say no. Any abstentions? Legislation, Ms. McClendon.

Thank you. Are there any citizens that we have registered to speak? There are no citizens registered to speak. All right, thank you. Commissioners, do you have any questions or comments? Commissioner Beckham, Commissioner Fairchild?

uh just question of clarity we're going to vote next week because we just had the first reading this week is that right yes so we'll have so we'll have the presentation available for the public to review okay thank you thank you for raising that point commissioner commissioner i'm good thank you commissioner joseph yeah we were i think we were probably all at the dedication of the park so we know the layout and we're okay but thank you

Thank you. And you will, again, just to reiterate Commissioner Fairchild's point, it will be noted and it will be uploaded on the city site for the public to review? Yes. I'll work on that with the public affairs. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm going to now close the public hearing. It is the pleasure of the commission.

All right. Ms. McClendon, legislation, please.

That concludes legislation, Your Honor. All right. Thank you, Ms. McClendon. Ms. McClendon, do we have any citizens that are registered to speak this morning? Yes.

Thank you. No further questions. Thank you, Mr. Lee. And happy birthday to you, and I would encourage you to continue to work with Montgomery County Children's Services as well as with their fatherhood program. Excuse me, Ms. McClendon.

Good morning. Excuse me, Ms. Paula. We just only have... It's just me speaking. Okay. Ladies, would you mind having a seat? Thank you. Sorry about that. That's okay. Have a seat right up in the front if you like. Oh, she said you can sit in the front if you like.

Thank you. Commissioners, do you have any closing comments? Commissioner Beckham?

Yes, Your Honor. I just want to thank all the speakers who came out today to voice your comments, concerns, and ideas. I appreciate that. I want to speak to the comments regarding the IAA. I think last week Chief Henderson of course expressed that the policy review committee within the department would work with the IAA to bring us some recommendations forward as it relates to use of force. In my perception, this builds on the work of police reform. I don't think this is, I would say, identical to the recommendations that were made by police reform. There are some, I think, ways in which this

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Fairchild?

Yeah, no, thank you. And thank you, Commissioner Beckham, for your comments. I appreciate you opening up the possibility of looking at the use of force committee. When we revised it, I felt like we... We missed an opportunity there. We went from four meetings a year to two meetings a year. And given the number of cases of use of force, I thought that was insufficient. And so I think re-looking at that whole committee, how it's structured, its scope, might be an important first step as we look to address that issue. And just for some clarity, I can't remember the comment that was made, but The

Okay. And Mr. Johnson, thank you for lifting up the strong mayor and thinking about how we do our governance. I think it's an important question. I would just note that Before Bishop came here, others have been raising this issue, including Miss Hastings, who has done some education in the public about that already. So the seed was planted long before the bishop came and tried to nurture and water it a bit. I'm interested in that conversation. I always think that we can look at how we can make a more perfect union, including our local government. So I look forward to the conversation. And I ev

Do you have it? Thank you, Commissioner Fairchild. Commissioner Shaw.

Oh, well, I'm sorry. And just, you know, Friday will be September 11th, so I know that that is a day that people observe, and so I encourage people to take a moment there to reflect. We know a lot of... of families were impacted by that experience. We also know that a lot of policies were made out of that experience. And I'm not sure that we have fully kind of taken in the significance of the consequences of that event and come to terms with all of that. So I invite people to take a moment to observe that day.

Thank you, Commissioner Fairchild. Commissioner Schall.

Yes, thank you, Commissioner, for those comments. And you're right. We do appreciate the citizens coming down to speak and engaging with us. And it's really important that that be maintained and continued. Also, Commissioner Beckham, thank you for your leadership regarding the graffiti. I mean, that's just a huge issue. And I've seen it in other places. I've seen it... be remediated in other places, and I just think it's really important for you to leave there and continue that, and I will come alongside you whenever needed. I want to just briefly launch Dayton Startup Week. It will take place

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, colleagues, for excellent comments and excellent work. I just have one additional comment here, as Commissioner mentioned. I hope everybody can come out this Saturday, September 12th, to join me to watch the Dayton World Soccer Games out at Kettering Field Sports Complex. The Parade of Nations, the traditional Parade of Nations, starts at 8.30. Games start at 9.00. Representatives of FC Cincinnati will be there supporting us, which is really nice. There will be some international food, some activities for everybody in the family. Actually, I saw there was another n

Thank you, Commissioner. Just a couple brief comments. We'd like to thank all of the residents that came out this morning. Thank you to all the staff. Thank you to the area agency for being here. Good to see you, Ms. Holder-Nelson. And I also would like to just uplift the comment from Commissioner Fairchild in regards to welcoming comments and welcoming feedback. It reminds me of the quote, the famous quote, one of my favorite activists, poets, writers, intellect, and great thought leader, and that is James Baldwin when he talks about just the right to criticize and being able to note the perp